“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly!” Colossians 3:16
It is in His Word, that God reveals Himself. We cannot know what He is like, nor what the attributes of His character are—unless we ponder the Scriptures. We cannot learn what God’s will is, nor what He would have us to do and to be—if we do not look into His Word. There is nothing that we need more, than to hear God speaking to us every morning. This is possible, only as we open the Bible and let its words whisper their messages to us.
No matter how familiar we may be with the teachings of the Scriptures, we need to ponder them anew every morning to keep their pure ideals and lofty requirements ever before us—lest we allow our standard of holy living to be lowered.
If we leave off for only one day, we shall become conscious of a loss of power in living. If for two successive days we fail to look into God’s perfect law—our friends around us will notice the failure in the beauty, the sweetness and the grace of our character and disposition. If for three days we fail to study the Scriptures to see how God would have us live, even the people of the world will see a lowering of the spiritual quality of our life!
One of the ways the Bible helps us, is by making Christ known to us. The noblest Christian is he before whose eyes, the character of Jesus shines in brightest splendor. Indeed, it is only when we have clear visions of Christ, that we really grow like Him.
Christ will never appear really great in our eyes, unless we make His Word our daily study. And only as He becomes great and glorious in our thoughts—will our character and standard of life be lifted up to what they should be.
James Russell Miller (1840 – 1912) was born of Irish/Scottish descent. He pastored churches in Pennsylvania and Illinois and was the author of over 60 published books, as well as countless booklets and pamphlets; and also served as supervisor of over two dozen periodicals with a combined annual circulation of over 66 million copies at the time of his death.